DOCSLIB.ORG

A Simple Bayesian Procedure for Forecasting the Outcomes of the UEFA Champions League Matches

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
A Simple Bayesian Procedure for Forecasting the Outcomes of the UEFA Champions League Matches Revised 12-02-15 A simple Bayesian procedure for forecasting the outcomes of the UEFA Champions League matches Jean-Louis Foulley 1 Abstract : This article presents a Bayesian implementation of a cumulative probit model to forecast the outcomes of the UEFA Champions League matches. The argument of the normal CDF involves a cut-off point, a home vs away playing effect and the difference in strength of the two competing teams. Team strength is assumed to follow a Gaussian distribution the expectation of which is expressed as a linear regression on an external rating of the team from eg. the UEFA Club Ranking (UEFACR) or the Football Club World Ranking (FCWR). Priors on these parameters are updated at the beginning of each season from their posterior distributions obtained at the end of the previous one. This allows making predictions of match results for each phase of the competition: group stage and knock-out. An application is presented for the 2013-2014 season. Adjustment based on the FCWR performs better than on UEFACR. Overall, using the former provides a net improvement of 24% and 23% in accuracy and Brier’s score over the control (zero prior expected difference between teams). A rating and ranking list of teams on their performance at this tournament and possibilities to include extra sources of information (expertise) into the model are also discussed. Keywords : Football; UEFA Champions League ; cumulative probit ; Bayesian forecasting. 1 Affiliated to Institut de Mathématiques et de Modélisation de Montpellier (3M) Université de Montpellier II 34095 Montpellier Cedex 05 and E-mail : [email protected] 1 Revised 12-02-15 1. Introduction There is a growing interest in statistics on sport and competitions from both a theoretical and an applied point of view due in particular to the availability of a large amount of data, the development of betting internet sites and the large media coverage of sporting events. Major competitions such as the UEFA Champions League and FIFA World Cup offer great opportunities to test and implement various models for analyzing the data generated by these competitions. These kinds of competitions are especially appealing to statisticians as they involve two different steps: i) a round-robin tournament where each contestant meets all the other ones within each group, followed for the top ranked teams by ii) a knock-out stage in which only the winners of each stage (round of 16, quarter and semi-finals) play the next stage up to the final. These two steps raise some difficulties for the statistician especially due to the differences of group levels of teams drawn for the mini-championship that can affect the choice of teams qualified for and playing in the next round. Another key aspect consists of fitting models to data either for rating & ranking teams or for forecasting outcomes of forthcoming matches. Although these two goals are not disconnected, they require different procedures and criteria to assess their efficiency. Knowing that, Section 2 presents a brief description of the competition and its different stages. Statistical methods are expounded in Section 3 with a focus on the cumulated probit model, its Bayesian implementation and its use in forecasting match results. An application to the 2013-2014 season is displayed in Section 4 to illustrate these procedures. Finally, Section 5 summarizes this study and discusses several alternatives and possible improvements of the model. 2. The tournament The tournament per se begins with a double round group stage of 32 teams distributed into eight groups: A, B, C, D, E, F, G and H. The eight groups result from a draw among the 32 teams allocated into four “pots” based on their UEFA club coefficients (Table 1). Among the 32 participants, 22 were automatically qualified and the ten remaining teams were selected through two qualification streams for national league champions and non champions. In the case studied here (2013-14 season), the 22 teams were: the title holder of the previous season (Bayern Munich for 2013-2014), the top three clubs of England (GBR), Spain (ESP) and Germany (DEU) championships, the top two of Italy (ITA), Portugal (PRT) and France (FRA) and the champions of Russia (RUS), Ukraine (UKR), Netherlands (NLD), Turkey (TUR), Denmark (DNK) and Greece (GRC). Table 1: Distribution of the 32 qualified teams for UEFA 2013-14 into the four pots and their UEFA coefficient 2 Revised 12-02-15 Pot 1 Pot 2 Pot 3 Pot 4 Bayern Munich *-DEU Atlético Madrid-ESP Zenith Petersburg -RUS FC Copenhagen - 146.922 99.605 70.766 DNK 47.140 FC Barcelona -ESP Shakhtar Donetsk -UKR Manchester City-GBR SSC Napoli-ITA 157.605 94.951 70.592 46.829 Chelsea -GBR AC Milano-ITA Ajax Amsterdam -NLD RSC Anderlecht - 137.592 93.829 64.945 BEL 44.880 Real de Madrid -ESP Schalke 04-DEU Borussia Dortmund-DEU Celtic Glasgow -SCO 136.605) 84.922 61.922 37.538 Manchester United- O Marseille FRA FC Basel -CHE Steaua Bucarest - GBR 78.800 59.785 ROU 130.592 35.604 Arsenal-GBR CSKA Moscow -RUS Olympiacos -GRC Viktoria Plzen -CZE 113.592 77.766 57.800 28.745 FC Porto -PRT Paris Saint Germain -FRA Galatasaray SK -TUR Real Sociedad-ESP 104.833) 71.800 54.400 17.605 Benfica Lisbon-PRT Juventus -ITA Bayer Leverkusen –DEU Austria Wien -AUT 102.833 70.829 53.922 16.575 Team underlined: National League Champion; Team in italics: qualified through the play-off rounds *Title holder of the UEFA Champions League 2012-13 The group stage played in autumn consists of a mini championship of twelve home and away matches between the four teams of the same group. The winning team and the second ranked of each group progress to the next knock out stage made up of home and away matches among the winning team of one group and the second of another group after a random draw held in December excluding teams from the same association country for the round of 16. This exclusion rule does not apply later on (eighth, quarter and semi finals), the final being played in a single match on neutral ground. Points are based on the following scoring system: 3, 1, and 0 for a win, draw and loss respectively with a preference for the goals scored at the opponent’s stadium in case of a tied aggregate score. 3. Statistical methods 3.1 A benchmark model Outcomes of matches under the format of Win Draw and Loss can be predicted either directly or indirectly via the number of goals scored by the two teams. As there is little practical difference between these two approaches (Goddard, 2005), we use for the sake of simplicity the former benchmark model under its latent ordered probit form known in sports statistics, as the Glenn and David (1960) model. 3 Revised 12-02-15 Let us briefly recall the reader the structure of this model. The random variable pertaining to the outcome X ij of the match m( ij ) between home i and away j teams is expressed via the cumulated density function of an associated latent variable Zij as follows (Agresti, 1992): pij,1 =Pr(X ij == 1) Pr(Z ij > d ) (1a) pij,2 =Pr(X ij ==-££ 2) Pr( d Z ij d ) (1b) pij,3 =Pr(X ij == 3) Pr(Z ij <- d ) (1c) with d being the threshold or cut-off point on the underlying scale and 1,2,3 standing for win, draw and loss respectively. Assuming that Zij has a Gaussian distribution with mean mij and unit standard deviation, the cumulative probit model consists of expressing mij as the sum of the difference Dsij = s i - s j in strength between teams i and j and a home vs away playing effect hij usually taken as a constant h so that: m = Ds + h ij ij (2) pij,1 =L( d -D s ij - h ) (3a) pij,3 =L( d +D s ij + h ) (3b) pij,2=1 - p ij ,1 - p ij ,3 (3c) where Lx( ) =Pr( Xx > ) =- 1 Fx( ) is the survival function equal to 1 minus the CDF F( x ), here the standard normal. The higher the difference between the strengths of the two teams i and j, the higher is the probability of win by team i against j which makes sense; the same reasoning applies to the well known home vs away playing advantage. 3.2 Bayesian implementation Now, there are several ways to implement statistical methods for making inference about the parameters of this basic model. Classical methods consider the team strength and home effects as fixed and make inference about them and other covariates effects, using maximum likelihood procedures: see eg. the general review by Cattelan (2012) in the context of the Bradley-Terry model. For others, model fitting to data is accomplished within a Bayesian framework (eg. Glickman, 1999) and this is the way chosen here. The first stage of the Bayesian hierarchical model reduces to a generalized Bernoulli or categorical distribution Cat(.) with probability parameters of the three possible outcomes described in (3abc) θ Π 1) Xij| ~ Cat ( ij ) (4) θ Π where refers to all the model parameters and ij= (p ijk, ) for k =1,2,3 . 4 Revised 12-02-15 A the second stage, we have to specify the distributions of parameters involved Π in ij viz. team strength, cut-off value and home effect. This is done as follows: 2N 2 2) sii|,~hs id( hs is , ) (5) where the team strength si is assumed normally distributed with mean hi and variance s 2 .
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Kits Version
    COUNTER ATTACK version 1.4 These representations are 100% unofficial KITS THAT COME WITH THE GAME ENGLAND ITALY SCOTLAND OTHER EUROPEAN TEAMS 021 004 022 118 001 002 040 041 002 SOON... 061 042 003 057 058 119 059 028 006 095 096 099 042 9 7 4 5 8 10 6 2 7 4 6 5 7 3 4 9 3 9 11 2 6 JUVENTUS AJAX YELLOW GK BLUE GK NEWCASTLE ARSENAL WEST HAM BOURNEMOUTH BRIGHTON CHELSEA CRYSTAL PALACE AC MILAN ATALANTA/ BOLOGNA BRESCIA CAGLIARI/ FIORENTINA ABERDEEN CELTIC DUNDEE UTD HAMILTON HEARTS OLYMPIACOS AEK ATHENS PANATHINAIKOS PAOK CLUB BRUGGE ANDERLECHT ST MIRREN ASTON VILLA EVERTON INTER GENOA BURNLEY 023 024 007 025 INCLUDED 026 SOON... INCLUDED 043 007 102 SOON... 060 061 118 062 063 097 003 098 021 128 129 CURRENTLY AVAILABLE individually 5 5 2 3 9 10 5 7 10 10 4 7 5 10 9 3 8 in the counter attack store 7 4 LEICESTER LIVERPOOL MAN CITY MAN UTD NEWCASTLE NORWICH HELLAS JUVENTUS JUVENTUS LAZIO LECCE PARMA HIBS ICT KILMARNOCK LIVINGSTON MOTHERWELL SPORTING CP BENFICA FC PORTO / BRAGA BOAVISTA DUKLA PRAGUE 001 002 003 004 005 VERONA CLASSIC / MODERN NAPOLI IFK GOTHENBURG UDINESE 027 028 029 030 031 120 044 SOON... 045 046 059 091 064 SOON 001 INCLUDED 094 100 101 004 036 130 131 4 10 11 4 3 CHELSEA BARCELONA BENFICA WEST HAM RIVER PLATE 2 3 4 11 11 3 7 7 8 5 7 4 5 11 4 8 11 SCHALKE INVERNESS LIVERPOOL ASTON VILLA RANGERS C.PALACE ABERDEEN BURNLEY SHEFF UTD SOUTHAMPTON TOTTENHAM WATFORD WOLVES BRADFORD ROMA SPAL SAMPDORIA SASSUOLO TORINO PALERMO RANGERS ROSS CO.
    [Show full text]
  • NBA MLB NFL NHL MLS WNBA American Athletic
    Facilities That Have the AlterG® ® Anti-Gravity Treadmill Texas Rangers LA Galaxy NBA Toronto Blue Jays (2) Minnesota United Atlanta Hawks (2) Washington Nationals (2) New York City FC Brooklyn Nets New York Red Bulls Boston Celtics Orlando City SC Charlotte Hornets (2) NFL Real Salt Lake Chicago Bulls Atlanta Falcons San Jose Earthquakes Cleveland Cavaliers Sporting KC Denver Nuggets Arizona Cardinals (2) Detroit Pistons Baltimore Ravens Golden State Warriors Buffalo Bills WNBA Houston Rockets Carolina Panthers Indiana Pacers Chicago Bears New York Liberty Los Angeles Lakers Cincinnati Bengals Los Angeles Clippers Cleveland Browns COLLEGE/UNIVERSITY Memphis Grizzlies Dallas Cowboys PHYSICAL THERAPY (3) PROGRAMS Miami Heat Denver Broncos Milwaukee Bucks (2) Detroit Lions Florida Gulf Coast University Minnesota Timberwolves Green Bay Packers Chapman University (2) New York Knicks Houston Texans Northern Arizona University New Orleans Pelicans Indianapolis Colts Marquette University Oklahoma City Thunder Jacksonville Jaguars University of Southern California Orlando Magic Kansas City Chiefs (2) University of Delaware Philadelphia 76ers Los Angeles Rams Samuel Merritt University Phoenix Suns (2) Miami Dolphins Georgia Regents University Hardin- Portland Trailblazers Sacramento Minnesota Vikings Simmons University Kings New England Patriots High Point University San Antonio Spurs New Orleans Saints Long Beach State University Utah Jazz New York Giants Chapman University (2) Washington Wizards New York Jets University of Texas at Arlington-
    [Show full text]
  • Oxidative Stress in Asthmatic and Non‐
    View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by Repositório Aberto da Universidade do Porto Accepted: 23 April 2017 DOI: 10.1111/pai.12729 ORIGINAL ARTICLE Upper Airways Oxidative stress in asthmatic and non- asthmatic adolescent swimmers—A breathomics approach Mariana Couto1,2,3 | Corália Barbosa4 | Diana Silva1,5 | Alisa Rudnitskaya6 | Luís Delgado1,3,5 | André Moreira1,5,7 | Sílvia M. Rocha4 1Basic and Clinical Immunology Unit, Department of Pathology, Faculty of Abstract Medicine, University of Porto, Porto, Portugal We hypothesize that oxidative stress induced by trichloramine exposure during swim- 2 Immunoallergology, Hospital & Instituto CUF ming could be related to etiopathogenesis of asthma among elite swimmers. Porto, Porto, Portugal Aim: To investigate the effect of a swimming training session on oxidative stress mark- 3CINTESIS, University of Porto, Porto, Portugal ers of asthmatic compared to non- asthmatic elite swimmers using exhaled breath (EB) 4Department of Chemistry & metabolomics. QOPNA, University of Aveiro, Aveiro, Portugal Methods: Elite swimmers annually screened in our department (n=27) were invited and 5Imunoalergologia, Centro Hospitalar São ® João, EPE, Porto, Portugal those who agreed to participate (n=20, of which 9 with asthma) had EB collected (Tedlar 6Department of Chemistry & bags) before and after a swimming training session. SPME fiber (DVB/CAR/PDMS) was CESAM, University of Aveiro, Aveiro, Portugal used to extract EB metabolites followed by a multidimensional gas chromatography anal- 7EPIUnit Institute of Public Health, University of Porto, Porto, Portugal ysis (GC×GC- ToFMS). Dataset comprises eight metabolites end products of lipid peroxi- dation: five aliphatic alkanes (nonane, 2,2,4,6,6- pentamethylheptane, decane, dodecane, Correspondence Mariana Couto, Serviço e Laboratório and tetradecane) and three aldehydes (nonanal, decanal, and dodecanal).
    [Show full text]
  • Dimensions of Football Stadium and Museum Tour Experiences: the Case of Europe’S Most Valuable Brands
    sustainability Article Dimensions of Football Stadium and Museum Tour Experiences: The Case of Europe’s Most Valuable Brands Ana Brochado 1,*, Carlos Brito 2, Adrien Bouchet 3 and Fernando Oliveira 4 1 Centre for Socioeconomic and Territorial Studies (DINÂMIA’CET), ISCTE—Instituto Universitário de Lisboa, 1649-026 Lisbon, Portugal 2 Faculty of Economics, University of Porto, 4200-464 Porto, Portugal; [email protected] 3 Collins College of Business, The University of Tulsa, Tulsa, OK 74104, USA; [email protected] 4 ISCTE—Instituto Universitário de Lisboa, 1649-026 Lisbon, Portugal; [email protected] * Correspondence: [email protected] Abstract: In the context of football’s globalisation, some of the most important football clubs (FCs) can currently be classified as ‘entertainment multinationals’. Sport hospitality provides opportunities to maximise club stadiums’ use so that they can increase clubs’ annual turnover and function as branding platforms. This study sought to identify the main narratives shared online about—and the dimensions of—visitors’ experiences with top football brands in stadium tours. The data collected for this research comprised 400 text reviews for 10 European FCs’ stadiums (i.e., 4000 reviews) written by visitors in the post-experience phase. Content analysis of these Web reviews was conducted using Leximancer software. The results confirm the existence of 15 themes: fan, tour, stadium, team, museum, room, staff, game, (best) place, ticket, seating, recommend(ation), food, shop and attraction. Most researchers have examined stadium tours from a supply-side perspective. The present study’s Citation: Brochado, A.; Brito, C.; Bouchet, A.; Oliveira, F. Dimensions aim was, therefore, to contribute to the existing literature by analysing stadium tours’ dimensions of Football Stadium and Museum from the visitors’ point of view.
    [Show full text]
  • 2018/19 UEFA Champions League Revenue Distribution
    UEFA Champions League: Distribution to clubs 2018/19 Country Play-offs Starting fee Coefficient Market pool Group matchesKnock-out matches Final account Performance Round Quarter-finals Semi-finals Final Total of 16 Group A Check Team Club Atlético de Madrid ESP 14,500,000 32,132,000 16,291,000 12,900,000 9,500,000 327,000 85,650,000 ESP Club Brugge KV BEL 14,500,000 8,864,000 1,720,000 5,700,000 597,000 31,381,000 BEL Borussia Dortmund GER 14,500,000 22,160,000 6,318,000 12,900,000 9,500,000 426,000 65,804,000 GER AS Monaco FC FRA 14,500,000 6,648,000 18,428,000 900,000 549,000 41,025,000 FRA Group B Tottenham Hotspur FC ENG 14,500,000 15,512,000 16,563,000 7,800,000 9,500,000 10,500,000 12,000,000 15,000,000 247,000 101,622,000 ENG FC Barcelona ESP 14,500,000 34,348,000 22,915,000 13,800,000 9,500,000 10,500,000 12,000,000 167,000 117,730,000 ESP PSV Eindhoven NED 14,500,000 11,080,000 910,000 1,800,000 610,000 28,900,000 NED F.C. Internazionale Milano ITA 14,500,000 17,728,000 7,726,000 7,800,000 513,000 48,267,000 ITA Group C SSC Napoli ITA 14,500,000 13,296,000 12,877,000 8,700,000 505,000 49,878,000 ITA Liverpool FC ENG 14,500,000 23,268,000 13,131,000 9,000,000 9,500,000 10,500,000 12,000,000 19,000,000 200,000 111,099,000 ENG Paris Saint-Germain FRA 14,500,000 26,592,000 24,077,000 10,800,000 9,500,000 326,000 85,795,000 FRA FK Crvena Zvezda SRB 14,500,000 2,216,000 1,076,000 3,900,000 642,000 22,334,000 SRB Group D FC Porto POR 14,500,000 28,808,000 1,056,000 15,900,000 9,500,000 10,500,000 352,000 80,616,000 POR Galatasaray A.Ş.
    [Show full text]
  • The Main Portuguese SAD´S Comparative Study Between The
    486 Int. J Latest Trends Fin. Eco. Sc. Vol‐3 No. 2 June 2013 The Main Portuguese SAD´s Comparative Study between the Economic and Financial Viability and the Success of their Sports Clubs Miguel Henriques Félix da Silva#, José António Filipe* # Instituto Universitário de Lisboa (ISCTE-IUL) Lisboa Portugal [email protected] * Department of Mathematics Instituto Universitário de Lisboa (ISCTE-IUL), BRU – IUL Lisboa Portugal [email protected] Abstract - The object of this paper is to assess the Europe currently lives a fairly sharp economic profitability of the four leading Portuguese Sociedades and social crisis. These times are of containment at Anónimas Desportivas (SADs)1 by comparing the European, national and regional level. It seems a economic and financial data of each SAD with the consensus that, for the time being, the core of the respective sports results of the clubs attached to these sovereign debt crisis, which sprouted after the SADs. The methodology followed the various steps financial crisis started September 15, 2008 with the inherent to this type of paper, all the while adopting both bankruptcy of U.S. Investment Bank Lehman a qualitative and quantitative approach, i.e. a hybrid Brothers, being basically geographically concentrated approach. Initially, we took on an interpretative in part of the periphery of the Euro Zone, where paradigm, as the elements necessary for research arise Portugal is included. from the observation and analysis of data. We began by Portugal is, for the time being, dependent on its increasing our scientific knowledge on the subject of creditors and is now a country forced to austerity analysis: SADs, sports results and balanced financial plans, which are a condition of foreign aid for its structures.
    [Show full text]
  • Ronaldo Gives Penalty to Benzema
    Ronaldo Gives Penalty To Benzema Telencephalic Marcellus shambles: he inaugurated his nabobs trustfully and irrevocably. When Hill overproduces his feminists rants not forevermore enough, is Orlando instructible? Westernmost Jon superinduces blusteringly, he struts his hushabies very observably. Toni kroos and manchester city looking for a new feature so it and ronaldo gives the The ball definitely crosses the line, but Asensio looks to have been fouled in the build up. Benzema is always an option as the team progresses to attacking the goal. Ramos again showed nerves of steel to chip the ball into the net from the spot after a VAR review for a handball by defender Marc Bartra, who appeared to have been pushed by visiting forward Borja Mayoral. The Morocco striker also scored a treble two weeks ago. It is understood that with Benzema playing, he is the first line of attack amongst the BBC trio. The two goals made him the top French scorer in La Liga history surpassing Zidane. They also played out a scoreless draw in the WSL Cup in December that ended with a United triumph in a penalty shootout. But with just one minute go until halftime, Antlers grabbed a lifeline. Gladbach hosts City on Feb. Akide has continued to contribute to the sport as a youth soccer coach in the United States. Sporting stadiums around Germany remain under strict restrictions due to the Coronavirus Pandemic as Government social distancing laws prohibit fans inside venues resulting in games being played behind closed doors. Benfica were unable to continue their superb run of domestic success last season, pipped to the Primeira Liga title by rivals FC Porto.
    [Show full text]
  • Paddy Power Sign up Offer No Deposit
    Paddy Power Sign Up Offer No Deposit Srinivas remains annectent: she stilt her buckers feminizing too sith? Plexiform and Romaic Joao foretell almost denominatively, though Casey abominated his Archie unbuilding. Sydney often anneals weightily when heptamerous Abdul programming frowardly and homologating her Joneses. Place huge selection and power sign up offer no deposit as implied by clicking on their bankroll and Currently offer sign up offers paddy power ups via your free bets, depositing money until you! Offer sign up offers paddy power ups is offering new depositing funds into a well when you will. In the page or power offer is the bonus an account than the relevant information services and. Other paddy power up to the paddy wallet. If you the best around the philadelphia eagles on social media is currently available at paddy power also be. Learn how long list of offering a deposit offer per player will outline the code offer. Sign up offer, you want to release any sportsbook, comment on the sort of conduct including football coverage of the welcome bonuses! Offer nor to be claimed within 30 days of registration. Co favourites count towards the paddy power at the offer eight weeks and conditions and controversial marketing purposes. Press escape or power ups by using the full of signing up via twitter profile to deposits. Paddy power sign up. Cs employ and power ups? Cheltenham festival or sign up offer to deposit bonus an issue trying to spend hundreds of depositing players who can start your money. We feel more every day, sign up offers, and conditions apply for the delivery process, especially important for this one of the world and.
    [Show full text]
  • The Paradox of the Portuguese Game: the Omnipresence of Football and the Absence of Spectators at Matches to Joao Nuno Coelho and Nina Clara Tiesler
    FSAS_A_243975 .fm Page 578 Thursday, July 12, 2007 9 :38 PM • Soccer and Society Routledge Vol. 8, No . 4, Month 2007, pp. 578-600 R Taylor 6 Franco Group The Paradox of the Portuguese Game: The Omnipresence of Football and the Absence of Spectators at Matches to Joao Nuno Coelho and Nina Clara Tiesler Without doubt, football is omnipresent in the Portuguese public (and private) sphere. Some speak about the footballizaton of Portuguese society', and criticize the hegemony of football in Portuguese culture, along with it the close (and sometimes dangerous) connec- tions between football and politics . What is so interesting about this phenomenon is that it is juxtaposed with other facts, such as stadium attendance being surprisingly low. The essay brings to the forefront the particularities of the Portuguese football social formation case by taking these two current realities as a point of departure . In analysing stadium attendance over three decades against specific historical backgrounds, the authors present six different factors which explain the paradox and come to the conclusion that both realities are not contradictory – but partly determining each other. Someone was saying yesterday that Norway is the top-ranking country in human development; ( .. .) that it's a fantastic country and so on and so on ( .. .) But here's back at them . Portugal is at the top of its group and all it needs is a draw to qualify 30 for the World Cup while Norway is five points behind the leader of its group! ( .. .) Ha ha ha! [ l ] Introduction Although Portuguese football is reasonably well-known to international football fans, at least since Benfica and the national team of Eusebio & Co ., the general idea abroad that Portugal is a `football country' is much more recent (Euro 2004).
    [Show full text]
  • Portrait Master Template
    Blue Stars / FIFA Youth Cup Statistical Kit Sportanlage Buchlern - Zuerich, Switzerland Last update: 19.05.2016 Photos from left to right: Blue Stars/FIFA Youth Cup 2012: Yanick Brecher (SUI, FC Zuerich) receives the adidas Golden Glove Award from the former Swiss goalkeeper Jürg Stiel (SUI, left). Blue Stars/FIFA Youth Cup 1995. David Beckham, Nicky Butt, Gary Neville and Chris Casper (all Manchester Utd). Blue Stars/FIFA Youth Cup 2008: AEK Athen - Hamburger SV - Fair Play. Blue Stars/FIFA Youth Cup 2011: Former French footballer Christian Karembeu (left) and Adidas Golden Ball winner Christian Twasam (FC Porto). FIFA/ foto-net Participating teams 2016 Group A Team Final Ranking 2016 Grasshopper Club (SUI) Champions West Ham United FC (ENG) Runners-up RSC Anderlecht (BEL) 3rd place FC St. Pauli (GER) 4th place Feyenoord Rotterdam (NED) 5th place FC Luzern (SUI) 6th place Benfica Lissabon (POR) 7th place FC Zuerich (SUI) 8th place FC Blue Stars (SUI) 9th place Guangzhou Evergrande FC (CHN) 10th place The participants shall be youth footballers born in 1996, 1997 or 1998. No players born before 1996 may be registered, however, each club may only register a maximum of five players born after 31 December 1998. Statistical overview - Blue Stars/FIFA Youth Cup 2016 2 Communications & Public Affairs Official Trophy Designer Thomas Fattorini Ltd, Birmingham, UK - Thomas R. Fattorini Manufacturer Thomas Fattorini Ltd, Birmingham, UK Description The original concept was inspired by the name of the competition: a blue star is mounted onto a star-shaped column. The structure supports a football – a consistent feature amongst almost all of FIFA’s event trophies.
    [Show full text]
  • High-Performance Soccer Camps
    High-performance Soccer Camps All high-performance camps feature intensive training for advanced players who want to take their skills to the next level. Compare your options below. Barcelona High-performance Academy Valencia FC PORTO High-performance BESTSELLER! The Barcelona High-performance Camp is BEST ACCOMMODATION! When we visited this academy, we were blown away by the student residence. our most popular high-performance camp. BEST TRAINING! This camp offers the most intensive and BEST SPECIAL FEATURE! The best students could be professional training (highest rated by our clients). invited to try out for the reserves of FC Porto in Portugal. Admission – Boys & girls, ages 6 – 21, all-girl option Admission – Boys & girls, ages 12 – 21 Training 30 hours (U13), 40 hours (14+) Training 27 hours per week, mix of fun per week, highly professional training, 12 students per and intensity, 12 students per training group, focus training group, focus on game intelligence and on improving overall football comprehension, improving game speed, grass and artificial turf official FC Porto coaches, grass and artificial turf Accommodation Ágora student Accommodation Academy student residence, 10 minutes walking from training, residence, 30 seconds walking from training, quadruple rooms (2 bunk beds) with private bathroom, double rooms (2 twin beds) with private bathroom, cleaning service, sheet and towel change, free Wi-Fi cleaning service, sheet and towel change, free Wi-Fi al and al turf Extra facilities – Game room (Ping-Pong, billiards), Extra
    [Show full text]
  • 2021 Topps Finest UEFA Champions League Checklist.Xls
    BASE BASE CARDS 1 Cristiano Ronaldo Juventus 2 Sadio Mané Liverpool FC 3 Luis Henrique Olympique de Marseille Rookie 4 Eric García Manchester City FC Rookie 5 Rodrygo Real Madrid C.F. 6 Jude Bellingham Borussia Dortmund Rookie 7 Thiago Alcantara Liverpool FC 8 Teden Mengi Manchester United Rookie 9 Danilo Pereira Paris Saint-Germain 10 Dodo FC Shakhtar Donetsk Rookie 11 Mason Mount Chelsea FC 12 Neco Williams Liverpool FC Rookie 13 Noah Okafor FC Salzburg Rookie 14 João Félix Atlético de Madrid 15 Weston McKennie Juventus 16 Francisco Trincão FC Barcelona Rookie 17 Lautaro Martínez FC Internazionale Milano 18 Riyad Mahrez Manchester City FC 19 Sergiño Dest FC Barcelona 20 Billy Gilmour Chelsea FC Rookie 21 Brandon Williams Manchester United Rookie 22 Malang Sarr FC Porto Rookie 23 Andrei Lunev FC Zenit 24 Erling Haaland Borussia Dortmund 25 Neymar Jr. Paris Saint-Germain 26 Antoine Griezmann FC Barcelona 27 Chris Richards FC Bayern München 28 Yasser Larouci Liverpool FC Rookie 29 Lucas Perrin Olympique de Marseille Rookie 30 Tyler Adams RB Leipzig 31 Stefan Savić Atlético de Madrid 32 Karim Benzema Real Madrid C.F. 33 Luka Modrić Real Madrid C.F. 34 Paul Pogba Manchester United 35 Romário Baró FC Porto Rookie 36 Pedri FC Barcelona Rookie 37 Takumi Minamino Liverpool FC 38 Ryan Gravenberch AFC Ajax Rookie 39 Tino Anjorin Chelsea FC Rookie 40 Jérémy Doku Stade Rennais FC Rookie 41 Kai Havertz Chelsea FC 42 Ciro Immobile SS Lazio 43 Marley Aké Olympique de Marseille Rookie 44 Konrad de la Fuente FC Barcelona Rookie 45 Jamal Musiala FC Bayern
    [Show full text]